Wednesday, March 8, 2017

Series Review: October Daye by Seanan McGuire

I mini-reviewed the first four books in the series during my 2016 recap, so I thought I'd continue in that vein. I've tried to avoid spoilers in every mini-review, so you can read through all of them to get an impression of my feelings on the series without spoiling events.

I picked this one up in December, got about halfway through, but then put it on hold during most of winter break. I don't know, I was still enjoying the series, but something about the plot of this one didn't really do it for me. More missing kids? It felt a little ho-hum. What should have felt thrilling (impending war!) just...didn't. I picked it up again after winter break and polished the second half off in about two days ending on a solid Good note. The ending could be considered game changing, but it just didn't impact me like I think it was supposed to.

Ok, this one was more episodic. The stakes aren't so high and, yeah, there's another missing teen Toby needs to track down. But, for some reason, this one worked for me. Everything felt engaging and fun, and even if it didn't seem new, it felt familiar like old friends. I also liked getting to see different realms of Faerie. I could definitely see myself picking this one up again for a reread when I want to revisit October's world.

Yes! Chimes combined the fun of Ashes but also brought in some bigger events. I'm definitely, solidly, into this series again. The librarian in me loved the time we got to spend in the traveling library and the romantic in me was so happy that things are finally going how I want them to go. October's powers are growing, and while she skirts the line of "too powerful," I'm still on board and having fun learning what she can now do. There's also a scene at the end of this one that brought back some of the emotional depth I had been missing lately.

FINALLY more secrets revealed! And, oh boy, there were a lot of secrets revealed. So much backstory was revealed and every answer was satisfying in its own way. We got to see shady characters from the past and learn a whole lot more about their motives, history, and ties to October. Of course, this also brought up just as many questions, and I'm still very interested in learning the answers to those questions now.

Ugh, but I won't be finding them here. This book was awful. October became a super-human parody of herself, Tybalt became a love-sick sop randomly spouting Shakespearian tripe, all of the once-charming side characters became hollow props, and the author went off on a poorly inserted political rant. What a hot mess.

I was ready to give up on the entire series after the abomination that is A Red-Rose Chain, but I figured with just one book left (published, there are still several more planned) that I might as well give it a shot. I'm glad I did. While Once Broken Faith isn't as good as the other books in the series, it's far from awful.

October is still too super-human and shallow, Tybalt is still too hollow (which, sidebar, it's such a shame to see his once-vibrant character turned into a cardboard cutout who only lives as a romantic caricature), and I didn't really get any answers to the overarching mysteries.

But, it also felt like everything was shifted a little closer to the good side of things. So it was comforting and my positive memories of the other books could carry the framework of this one well enough. I'm glad I read it, and now I will pick up the next book when it's released.

A note on the short stories:

There are a ton of short stories that can be read as companion pieces between the various novels. For the most part, I didn't like them. The ones I (tried to) read felt like fan-fiction in both writing and how much they diverged from cannon. Many are written from the POV of other characters and their voices just felt strange.

I don't think anything is missed by not reading these stories, and I wish I hadn't looked into them myself. The only one I did enjoy is Dreams and Slumbers, which comes right after Once Broken Faith. This one is also included in the published copy of that book, so I wonder if my enjoyment of it has something to do with the fact that it went through the publisher process (as opposed to all the other ones I read that were freebies).

Bottom line

Though the series is starting to wear a little thin, I'm still really glad I picked it up. I've had so much fun in October's world and am glad to have spent time with the characters I've met along this journey. I'm looking forward to reading more and I'm sad that I have to wait to continue on with October and this world. Despite the few rocky points, I'd still recommend this series. I just hope Seanan McGuire can recapture the magic in the final books. Now I need to find another paranormal series to fill the void.